Waiting all night

Friday

Feb 9, 2018 at 1:01 AM

Kathy Hanks

The doors for the free dental clinic wouldn’t open until 4:30 a.m. today, but before noon on Thursday 16 people were waiting outside of Sunflower South.

Five of them had slept outdoors to ensure their space in the line at the Kansas Dental Charitable Foundation Kansas Mission of Mercy dental clinic, which will be open Friday and Saturday at the Kansas State Fairgrounds.

That’s how important free dental work was to them.

“We can’t afford dental insurance or the cost of a dentist,” said Donna St. Clair. That’s why she came all the way from Topeka and was sitting in a camp chair bundled in a blanket, as the temperature began to warm into the 50s.

Stacy Yarnell and Georgia Mason came from Newton and would be number one and two through the door. They had come Tuesday to be certain they would see a dentist. They brought camping gear but someone with the Kansas State Fair staff told them they couldn’t set up within the fairgrounds but could camp in the parking lot north of the grounds. That would mean losing their place in line.

Yarnell had a small fire going in a container which she started with toilet paper and rubbing alcohol. She was warming a cup of hot chocolate over the flames. By her side was a bag of food.

“I was toasty warm last night,” Yarnell said. A carpet runner and mylar sun visor protected her from the cement.

Organizers told them they would open the building at 10 p.m. Thursday, to give them a warm place for the night.

Patients were set to receive with wristbands and paperwork, before treatment.

Niki Sadler, project coordinator, with the Kansas Dental Charitable Foundation in Topeka said they expected to see 700 to 800 patients each day. The majority would drive a half hour or less for the clinic. But some, like St.Clair, will travel across the state for free dental care.

For a low-income family of five without dental insurance going to the dentist would be very expensive.

“It would be cheaper to put the family in the car and drive across the state to a free clinic,” said Sadler.

Those waiting on line were repeat patients of KMOM, held across the state every year since 2003. That first year, they treated 1,734 patients in Garden City and 2,629 patients in Kansas City. The clinic came to Hutchinson in 2011 with 1,638 patients treated.

Meanwhile, inside the Meadowlark building crews started working at 8 a.m. to transform the cavern of a space into a sanitary clinic. Dr. Brett Roufs, a Newton dentist and state director for KMOM, oversaw the process. He had designed the layout based on the building's square footage.

Organizers were seeing to every detail and would depend on a crew of 1,500 volunteers throughout the two-day clinic.

Local coordinator Dr. Susan Evans expected 140 dentists and oral surgeons and 140 dental hygienists through the two days. The hygienists would be numbing patients, cleaning teeth and doing patient education, while dentists would do fillings and extractions. They would be able to take care of immediate needs and to help them if they are in pain with an abscess. While they could do a full mouth extraction, no wisdom teeth will be pulled and no partials would be made. However, those who have multiple problems can return the next day, but they would have to get back in line.

As they divided the building into stations, they had set up the sterilization center with 10 autoclaves where equipment would be sterilized.

“We follow all CDC protocol,” Roufs said.

From the donated towels from Ineeda Cleaners to the Trinity High School Senior boys doing the heavy lifting, it was a community effort getting the clinic up and running.

Back outside, Dean Dotson was waiting with his daughter. In 2013 he had his teeth pulled at the KMOM clinic in Wichita.

This time he was here for his daughter.

“And the biscuits and gravy,” he said, speaking about the free breakfast served to all the patients. “They make the best biscuits and gravy.”

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